New Green Spot on the horizon

So summer is in the air and as is a brand new release from Irish Distillers and Mitchell and Sons! Green Spot finished in Bordeaux wine casks! Supposedly chosen due to their long history with the Irish, the Chateau Leoville Barton!

(check out the background info on Barton here http://www.donnybrookfair.ie/files/pdf/history_of_barton_guestier.pdf)

The launch of this new Green Spot will be approx. June 2/3rd this year in Bordeaux. Extremely exciting for fans of Irish whiskey not only because of the new flavours that will be presented with the traditional pot still spices but the fact that IDL generally don’t release special finish bottlings, rather preferring to release entirely new lines instead. This in itself will make for some exciting news, keeping an eye to see if IDL have opened their doors to new innovations, something which will hopefully become abundant as this Irish whiskey renaissance matures.

The word on the street is that this is targeted at the U.S. market but it has already been spotted in catelogues for the French market so hopefully we will see these lining our shelves in Europe mid June as well.

I don’t know about you but I am extremely excited to see exactly what this tastes like myself but for now I will have to make due with just the tasting notes!

Nose: French oak, crispy woodland notes which lend themselves to the spicy pot still character. The wine seasoning brings a delicate touch of floral perfume and ripe berries such as raspberries and strawberries, they are in addition to the orchard fruits of the traditional green spot flavours.

Palate: the familiar mouth coating effect is a very satisfying balance of oak and spices. Some vanilla sweetness works in harmony with the dry wine influence, while the fresh orchard fruits and French oak combine effortlessly with the barley grains to complete the complexity.

Finish: the rich French oak character is slow to fade leaving the wine and spices of France and Ireland with the last word.